Shares closed Monday morning on a negative note as fears of coronavirus continue to cast a shadow on the Vietnamese market. -- Photo cafef.vn

Shares closed Monday morning on a negative note as fears of coronavirus continue to cast a shadow on the Vietnamese market.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE), the VN-Index lost 3.16 per cent to end at 907.01 points.

The VN-Index fell a total of 5.53 per cent on Thursday and Friday – the only two trading days of the post-Tet week – to end at 936.62 points.

Fears about the disease triggered large-scale sell-offs on the Vietnamese markets.

Many large-cap stocks were strongly hit, such as PetroVietnam Construction Corporation (PVC), FLC Faros Construction Joint Stock Company (ROS), Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), Vietjet (VJC), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Co (PVD), Bao Viet Holdings, Masan Group (MSN) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS).

Pharmaceutical stocks are rising as disease fears have boosted demand for healthcare products and services, thus lifting demand for shares.

Some big gainers in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector were DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG), Ha Tay Pharmaceutical JSC (DHT), Imexpharm Corporation (IPM) and Domesco Medical Import Export JSC (DMC),

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dropped 2.37 per cent to close at 99.94 points.

The northern market lost nearly 3.70 per cent in two days to end last week at 102.36 points.

The afternoon trading starts at 1pm. — VNS